The 235-page Hema Committee Report was released on 19 August after five years of collecting dust on the Kerala government’s desk and five years of incessant pressure from both women in the industry and the media. Its release marks an unbelievable milestone: there is now an official recognition of the casting couch in the Malayalam film industry.
For the first time, the Malayalam film industry stands stripped naked in front of its national audience. And it’s spilling its guts in the form of the Hema Committee Report.
Its progressive tag has been revoked, and its deeply exploitative practices exposed. The emperor isn’t wearing new clothes, he’s wearing nothing at all. And that is why the Hema Committee Report and its aftermath is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The report’s release was followed by a foreboding calm. Everyone waited with bated breaths. And then, in one fell swoop, the storm broke.
Women began to speak on the record. Press conferences were held. FIRs were filed against actors, filmmakers, producers. Resignations took place en masse. And the house of cards came tumbling down.
While the redacted eighty-or-so pages—of which over fifty were direct depositions on sexual assault—may very well remain under wraps, the report has emboldened women in the industry to come out publicly and name their abusers.
It took four days after the report’s release for the first major development. On 23 August, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) denied the existence of a casting couch. But on 24 August, a slew of allegations came out. One actress named at least five instances of sexual harassment that she faced at the hands of four actors—Mukesh, Maniyanpilla Raju, Idavela Babu, and Jayasurya.
Then the FIRs began to be filed. The first major cases were made against actor Siddique, who quit his AMMA post on 25 August and was booked for rape, and director Ranjith Balakrishnan, who was booked for sexual assault on 26 August. Actor and CPI(M) MLA Mukesh was booked for sexual assault on 29 August, as was actor Jayasurya.
All this comes after the Women in Cinema Collective—formed in 2017 after the infamous Dileep case shocked the industry and led to the cascading effects seen today—was systematically dismissed for talking about sexual harassment and workplace parity in the five years that followed.
Sexual assault within the glamorous world of entertainment is no secret. But a government releasing a report proving the fact is unprecedented.
Also read: Hema Committee report took 5 yrs to come out. Telugu film industry’s version still under wraps
‘Feminichis’ of film
The Hema Committee report screams aloud the kinds of stories that only used to be whispered.
It acknowledges that an unspoken mafia exists, controlling the way power is distributed across the industry. It talks about the overwhelming fear women had when the committee tried to document their abuse. It notes how sexual favours for professional mobility were disguised as “adjustments” and “compromises”. An entire section details the ‘knock on the door’—an all-too-familiar experience of men banging on their women colleague’s hotel room doors at night after shooting wrapped up for the day.
In Kerala, feminists are dismissed derogatorily as “feminichi”. And its provenance is rooted in the visibility of the film industry.
The term came up around the same time as the Dileep case. It was a sign of a pervasive attitude. In 2018, superstar Mohanlal—who resigned as president of AMMA on 27 August along with all seventeen executive members—gave an interview to Gulf News in which he said that the #MeToo movement was a “fad” — and that men, too, can say “Me Too”.
The word was the first line of attack against anyone who tried to call out these shortcomings. Actor Parvathy—also a WCC founding member—criticised misogynist dialogues in the 2016 Mammootty starrer Kasaba, and was trolled as an angry, sensitive feminichi who found fault with everything.
When the WCC was set up, nearly all members were dismissed or boycotted by the film industry. The Hema Committee report details instances of this ostracism, clearly pointing out the consequences for women. Speaking up on sexual assault led to snide comments: men would avoid them on set, teasing them by saying sitting next to them would be enough to be accused of assault.
And in the five years since, the WCC has had to carve out its own parallel industry, fighting hard for parity at every level — from equal pay for male and female actors at the top to ensuring safety mechanisms for transwomen employed on set as makeup artists.
They went to court, and now internal complaints committees are present at every Malayalam film set. They advised women in parallel film industries, like Tollywood, on how to set up support groups and redressal mechanisms to address issues that women face. They surveyed working conditions at every level of the industry, and came up with recommendations on how to promote women’s entrepreneurship, set up unions and associations, and implement the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act.
Without the dogged perseverance of the WCC, the Hema Committee would never have been set up—nor would this report have been released.
Also read: Malayalam cinema is a Boys’ Club. Its progressive tag coming apart with Hema Committee report
Women standing with women
Besides formally acknowledging the casting couch, the Hema Committee Report is another victory: this is a report put together by women, because of women.
Kerala has long occupied a progressive pedestal for its Leftist politics—and popular narratives have glorified its traditionally matriarchal and highly educated society. The report proves that Malayali men are still just…men.
But some men are finally speaking up now, anxious to put distance between them and more active perpetrators of inequality. Actors Prithviraj and Jagadish have made public statements asking for the rest of the report to be released so people can be named and shamed. But there are also the men who would rather stay silent than say anything at all—like Mohanlal and the rest of AMMA.
The Hema Committee report is just a start. It has had its desired effect of emboldening women and holding people in positions of power to justice. It now remains to be seen if the film industry can do the painful work of starting from scratch, and rebuilding itself to be equitable and safe for all workers.
American feminist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston once wrote that there are “years that ask questions, and years that answer.”
If the women of Kerala’s film industry asked if anyone was listening in 2017, the Hema Committee Report’s answer came seven years too late— yes, they were heard. Loud and clear.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)